“No matter what I do, it seems that I have to work twice has hard as everyone
else,” the hapless mechanic said as he over tightened the fan belt bolt, causing
it to snap in two. He had no business being a mechanic in the first place.
Everything he touched ended up in worse shape than before he put his hands to
it. His problem was he didn’t trust his own judgement. When tightening
something, he would over tighten it, not ever believing it was tight enough.
When cooking, he would over season, until it was not fit to eat. When scratching
an itch, he would often leave a bloody wound, sometimes needing stitches.

Because he didn’t trust his own judgement, no one else would either. This
damnable situation was only getting worse, with the addition of his deep-seated
anger now getting the best of him. Each time he fouled something up; he would
curse and beat it with whatever was handy. He wasn’t a pleasant person to be
around for sure.

To get him out of the garage for a while, the manager sent him to the mall to
pick up a package for his wife. The mall was only ten minutes away and the
manager expected it would take around an hour for the mechanic to get there,
find the store, pick up the package and get back to the garage. Most people
could do it in 30 minutes, but the mechanic wasn’t most people.

The mechanic got to the store, picked up the package and tried to get back to
work in the time allotted. He was in such a hurry that he mistakenly tried to
walk up the down escalator. He was still looking down at his feet, which was the
problem in the first place and was annoyed with all of the shoppers who were
getting in his way. When he heard people laughing around him, he felt for some
reason that it was at him. When he looked up, he was a fourth of the way up the
down escalator and the people going down around him laughed at him for being so
mindless.

When he realized what was happening, he determined he was going to make it to
the top. For five minutes, he pressed and rudely pushed his way up, until four
Japanese tourists, arm joined in arm were coming down together in a row so he
couldn’t get around them. Minutes later he wound up at the bottom of the
escalator, where he started in the first place. Everyone was laughing at him,
which made his face red with anger. When the crowd saw that he was angry, they
laughed all the more.

He continued for hours trying to get to the top, but either couldn’t get
through the crowds or slipped and

fell backwards and had to start over again. No matter what, he was standing
his ground this time. He continued for 5 hours until he finally did get to the
top of the down escalator. His manager at the garage, who had been watching this
spectacle for the last half and hour, was waiting on him. The manager took the
package from him and said, “You’re fired!”

For the last two hours, the army recruitment officer watched the mechanic and
thought to himself, “The army is looking for people like him.” He approached the
mechanic, made the sales pitch and signed him up. After three months of
training, the mechanic was ready to meet his destiny…as a bomb explosive
detonation officer.

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